I will readily admit that I collect conspiracy theories, and I enjoy reading through new ones, and seeing how folks "connect the dots" because it's interesting to see how folks interpret information. In part, it's the way the human brain works: it makes connections, predicts based upon information, and likes to discern patterns. It's part of how we got where we are today. In part, it's a desire to "complete" information sets, based on clues, and be in the know. It's a way of rising above mediocrity to see such patterns, patterns that others can't quite get. I am NOT above this, and most of us aren't. In politics, especially, looking at motivations, and seeing larger patterns IS how to look at fairly large data sets. We all do it. The question is: do you do this in a rational fashion, or are you just gathering up data to connect to support your own biases, or are you making objective assessments? Or are you making wild leaps just to make wild leaps? There are a TON of ways to look at information, and it's easy to get tripped up, or in the case of a lot of our Fark shills, it's easy to spin information to support personal or even paid biases.

Conspiracy theories are a way of looking at the world, and seeing a world where only a few are actually in the know, and congratulating themselves on being above the herd. It's understandable how folks can get hooked on these sorts of things.

Facts do have the damnedest way of ruining a good conspiracy theory. If Kennedy assassination buffs wanted to do something actually useful for history, they'd stop asking WHO shot Kennedy, because that is known and incontrovertible. What they would do is ask WHY Oswald shot him and whether someone else put him up to the task and what that person's motivations were. While I do not believe Lee Harvey was a spontaneous lunatic with a gun, I do believe the truth if it were ever uncovered would depress a lot of people as they discovered the incredibly trivial reason a great US president died

Why did the state dept give Oswald money before AND after he defected to USSR? (and why did Oswald visit a US military base in Japan during his "defection"?)

Why are Oswald's tax returns still classified?

Why did the president of the Texas Workforce Commission personally give Oswald the job at the building that just so happened to be conveniently overlooking a certain motorcade route a short while later?

Why were secret service personnel (guys who were supposed to be "human shields" on side of car) ordered to stand down at Love Field airport? (see video on youtube)

Why was a man known for mafia ties allowed into a secured area to kill Oswald?

There is mountains and MOUNTAINS of evidence pre Oliver Stone-derp that points to conspiracy. The staggering number of witnesses alone from that day. In front of the knoll,behind the knoll and across from the knoll. Multiple rail workers on the bridge a ways behind the knoll saw flashes and men behind the fence. ......etc.......etc........

The enormity of folks with ties to Oswald who died shortly after..........etc

Nobody has commented on the TFA where the article says the nerve ending explodes in a random direction?

That is farking stupid.

It's not the nerve exploding. The bullet enters the skull from one side, makes a tiny hole and compresses and pressurizes the fluids in the skull in front of it leaving a vaccum behind the bullet path (no jet of fluid from entry hole), as it does so it punches a larger hole out the other side of the skull which causes a jet of fluid to basically push the skull in the opposite direction of the entry wound.

The existence of a secret cabal means that there's some sort of order in the world; a catastrophic fluke suggests there's a vast crevice of chaos, the essence of dread.

The universe is an uncaring ocean of cold nothing...we are a soap bubble bouncing on a foam of indifference. Your conspiracy, your god, your religion...whatever you cling to that gives you hope of order and the possibility of control is a lie and a fraud.

I am a pathologist and have never heard of that. Furthermore, it would defy all laws of physics that an explosion contained entirely in your head would propel your meat-bag backwards, TOWARDS the bullet's origin.

I'm certainly no conspiracy theorist, and I don't know or care who killed Kennedy, but that claim as fact and proof that it was all a single gun-man shooting from the back is ludicrous. Not only that, it makes me think that it's nothing more than a white-wash attempt to cover-up a pretty significant gap in the government's explanation of the assassination.

i watched a nova episode on this a couple of days ago in which they used modern ballistic and other forensic science to study the "magic bullet" theory. and you know what? it turns out to be completely plausible.

In reality, all conspiracy theories are started by the government to create the illusion that they're vastly more powerful and organized than they really are and distract the most attentive and creative of our citizens from focusing on the fact that they're really no more scary than the Keystone Cops.

The only people more annoying than conspiracy theorists are those smarmy, above-it-all geniuses who have decided that conspiracies simply do not ever exist in any form.

The Kennedy thing has been studied a LONG time by people who have devoted years to research and investigation. If you showed up late for the show and dismissed the whole thing as a garden variety chemtrail-esque conspiracy theory, cuz you watched a History Channel show, you just happen to be the actual moron in this scenario.

FreeBirdInTheHand:trappedspirit: There's no space to launch a full rebuttal of the conspiracy theorists. (It took 1,632 pages for Vincent Bugliosi to do that in his 2007 book http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393045250/?tag=slatmaga-20" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 51); text-decoration: none; font-family: sl-ApresBold; font-size: 15px; line-height: 27px;">Reclaiming History.)

Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich:Rapmaster2000: That's why you never win on arguing the merits of a conspiracy theory. To even attempt so, just proves that you are one of The Sheeple who doesn't see the powerful people controlling precisely every aspect of our lives.

I think that's the wrong attitude to take, and, ironically, just shows your desire to feel superior to people who have different ideas than you..

It's entirely conceivable that I am superior to people with stupid ideas.

Just the other day, an old friend of mine, that I actually respect as a well-rounded, intelligent person, posted up on FB that he was about ready to change his mind about this conspiracy thoery based on yet again, another TV special he just saw.

They have been going over this for over 40 years. Does it really make any difference at this point? I mean, let's just say that there was TRULY incontrovertible evidence that Oswald was not the only shooter (or even invloved). What would that change? What would it prove? Who is still alive and relevant that they could be held responsible anyway. Don't we have other things going on today that could stand to have a better looking at?

Conspiracy theory has nothing to do with the merits of the theory and everything to do with the theorist's longing for reason and order and perception of himself as smarter than everyone else.

That's why you never win on arguing the merits of a conspiracy theory. To even attempt so, just proves that you are one of The Sheeple who doesn't see the powerful people controlling precisely every aspect of our lives.

These people don't like the randomness of some loner in Dallas shooting the President or of some backwoods cave-dwellers successfully carrying out a plan to kill 3,000 New Yorkers. It happens. Deal with it.

Magorn:What they would do is ask WHY Oswald shot him and whether someone else put him up to the task and what that person's motivations were. While I do not believe Lee Harvey was a spontaneous lunatic with a gun, I do believe the truth if it were ever uncovered would depress a lot of people as they discovered the incredibly trivial reason a great US president died

I dunno. If he was just acting alone, why the mob hit on him while he was in police custody?

As this promises to be a conspiracy thread, I would just like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that only my version of things is correct, only my facts are facts, and that I'm straight up pleasuring myself to the thought of how dumb you all are that only I can see the TRUTH.

/so what are we talking about? 9/11? Trilateral Commission? Moon landing?//they're all linked, you know///three words: molybdenum futures market////I've said too much